House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer on Tuesday said Republicans were trying to score political points off the migrant crisis at the southern border.
Republicans appear to be “wringing their hands” over the crisis but they really believe it is a “political benefit for them,” said the Maryland Democrat.
“Let’s be honest, the Republicans have for a long time used immigration as a political football to feed fear and apprehension,” Mr. Hoyer told Capitol Hill reporters.
A surge of illegal immigrants at the border, including more than 4,000 unaccompanied children in the last few weeks, has the Biden administration scrambling to accommodate the new arrivals.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas earlier on Tuesday blamed the situation on Mexico’s lessening cooperation, on the perilous conditions in other countries prompting mass migration and on the Trump administration leaving “no plans” for protecting Border Patrol agents and others on the front lines from the coronavirus.
Mr. Hoyer said the situation was the result of what he called a “broken” immigration system. The increase in the number of immigrants trying to enter the U.S.-Mexico border is because “there is no efficient path to seek asylum,” he said.
The Border Patrol made 96,974 arrests last month. That’s the third-highest month in records dating back more than a decade, topped only by the peak of the 2019 surge in April and May of that year.
• Kery Murakami can be reached at kmurakami@washingtontimes.com.
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